The invention relates to a motion picture camera for full motion recordings of high picture quality such as television movies, cinema commercials, cinema movies or even industrial or medical applications. Motion picture cameras for the exposure of a photochemical negative film are known for such recordings. This recording technology allows a high resolution, large brightness dynamics and good color rendering. However, the development and the printing of such a negative film are undesirably complex and/or expensive since specialist equipment is required. Furthermore, it is required for an electronic picture processing, which has become customary in the meantime—for example for the changing of the color or for the insertion of synthetic picture elements—to subsequently digitize the exposed film material.
Digital video cameras are also known which record the recorded pictures with three CCD sensors provided for different colors and store them in a digital format on magnetic tape. The recording is observed by means of an electronic viewfinder in the form of an integrated display monitor which reproduces the recorded pictures recorded by means of the CCD sensors. Such cameras therefore have the advantage that the recorded film pictures are already present in digital form. However, such video cameras do not satisfy the demands occurring in all typical recording situations with respect to handling and picture quality and they are consequently not used in full motion recordings in which a particularly high picture quality is desired. For example, such a camera design with three CCD sensors requires recording lenses with a comparatively long back focal length, which is disadvantageous for the imaging performance of the optical systems. Furthermore, splitter prisms are required in the optical reception path which can likewise result in an unwanted reduction in the recording quality.